The Grey Wizards FC
The Grey Wizards Football Club, commonly referred to by the abbreviation The Grey Wizards FC or simply Grey Wizards, is an English professional football club based in Birmingham, West Midlands. The club was founded in 2005 by the clubs current Manager, Mithrandir. The most successfull year for the club was in the 2007-5 season, when the club won the tough Championship (A) league and made it to the Quarter Final of the prestigious England National Cup. Their home games are played at Bagshot Row, a large 15.000 seater stadium with green and red seats. History The club was founded in December 12, 2005, by then 18 year old Tolkien and Football fanatic Mithrandir. Name and colours of the club are inspired by the Lord of the Rings character Gandalf the Grey. Five days after the clubs founding, the first match was played against now deffunct club FC Gooch. The match ended in a 0-1 loss for the Wizards. Oscar Amaral became the first signing for the new club, and he would cost the club £150/week, plus £1000 in sign on bonus. When Ritchie Joyner joined the club for £200.000, from now deffunct club Portsmouth Pirates, he became the first club to club signing for the club. After half a month away from matches, the club played Brazilian football club Atletico Mineiro from Belo Horizonte. The clubs first away match ended in a 0-1 defeat, once again. January 27, 2006, the club played it's first official match. The club participated in Pre-Season Tournament 1, but lost during Extra-time against The Silkmen (later left the English league system to restart in the new Irish League as The Irish Silkmen. The faith of the clubs future was going to be decided in the 2nd Pre-season Tournament. This time, the Wizards played exeptionatly well and got to the Tournaments Semi Final (Final?). Unfortunatly Sutton Grammar United were to strong, and beat Wizards 0-1. Thanks to the good run in the Pre-season tournament, Wizards got the honour of playing in the top league, against teams like Aliens, Irons, SGU, Gypsy Rovers and US Arsenal. (To be continued) Season 7 After the pretty succesfull 6th season in which the club ended up 9th in the league, Manager Mithrandir was aiming to climb into the top 5 of the league. However this season was largely a big dissapointment for the club. Last seasons signing Lawson Burke was far away from his strong performance in season 6 and was missing a lot of chances for the Wizards team. A 4 week injury sidlined him for the majority of the 2nd half of the season and Wizards saw themselves at the relegation battle. The last Matchday preformance against powerhouse Aliens helped them to a 8th place finish ahead of Cosmltin, Surrey, HaveIt and Spankysallstars. With 2-0 and the last goal scored by Lawson Burke it looks like the seasons question marks might be changed next season as the league becomes increasingly more dificult to play in. Club Relegation and Financial crisis The Grey Wizards FC was relegated in Season 9 to the Championship B after 4 seasons in the Premiership. A month after the relegation manager Mithrandir dissapeared and was not seen near Bagshot Row ever again. The club entered the Championship B without the manager and owner, and the club started to fall apart due to financial troubles and the clubs assistants unable to create a solid formation. When the club entered the 3rd level in the league system the financial trouble made the club enter bankruptcy and the entire team leave. After a failed atempt to restart the club with new finances and players , the club was put out of it's misery and left the English league system for good. What about manager Mithrandir? Just like the character he was named after (Gandalf), Mithrandir made a return to Dugout Online under the name Erumaro and started with a new team in his native Swedish league. Players As of 23 June 2008. Out on loan [[Hadrien Gicquel | Oskar Vaino Notable players Listed according to when they debuted for The Grey Wizards FC : * S01: Russ Bradley, Shaun Stack, Oscar Amaral, Shaw Treloar, Digby Savidge, Evandro Costa. * S02: Norris Sands, Kozue Tsucgimoto, Simon Thiry, Elio Laranjeira, Hanno Toomasson, Jesse Anttila, Hugo Carlsson. * S03: Raul Andres Machado Montes, Vedat Gokbora, Sidinei Andrade, Silviu Sandu, Teodor Helle. * S04: Richard Fievet, Oskar Vaino, Borisav Ostrozinska, Samppa Ikonen, Veroljub Radmilo. * S05: Young Min Roh, Herb Banister, Stefan Januscak, Sidinei Farias, Godfrey Outterridge, Nicu Constantin. * S06: Lawson Burke, Hadrien Gicquel, Radu Marculescu * S07: Brack Wyndham, Jase Hagler, Niculae Ciur, Umit Biryol, Primo Garino * S08: Lars Mouritsen * S09: Alfredo Isamael Abelenda Vassallo Club statistics and records Colours and badge As the club name suggests, the club uses different shades of grey in their official gear. The kit have warried from season to season and only as recently as season 5 did the club keep a previous kits style. The current home kit is a gradient green and grey shirt with grey shorts. Away kit is a gradient grey and green shirt with green shorts. Future home kits will likely be based on the current one (as of season 6), while the away kit will be more exprimental with colours and design. The current badge of the Wizards is designed by English manager Trev of Red Park Avenue. An alternative logo is used during the off-season. Stadium Hobbiton have served as the clubs home ground for the 6 seasons the club been in existance. The oldest stand in the ground is the eastern one (stand 2), constructed in the clubs childhood. Every year the stadium have been upgraded with more seats and when the Wizards finally returned too Premiership football in season 5, the club built a new 3000 seat stand in green, where the clubs most devout supporters are. The stadium is set for it's biggest change yet, when the two oldest red stands will become bigger and green. Hobbiton will also change it's name to Bagshot Row. The capacity will be above 10.000 seats, and the club will try and improve it even more during the following seasons (depending on the financial situation. Supporters and rivalries Honours National titles Championship (A): :* (1): 2007-05 Category:Football Clubs Category:English Clubs